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22 Jan 2010 16:29

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Biz: The stock market is hyperventilating due to bank regulation fears

  • 5% 3-day dip in stocks thanks to Obama’s regulation plan source

20 Jan 2010 21:28

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Culture: Conangate: NBC is run by a bunch of unsympathetic douchebags

  • NBC execs pinned the blame for the contract dispute directly on Conan. So, let’s say you’re a late-night host treated like crap by your network. They damage your trust and you are basically forced to walk. But you want to make sure all of your employees get a severance package that doesn’t suck, because, hey, it’s the recession. Would you pose the situation like this?: “It was Conan’s decision to leave NBC that resulted in nearly 200 of his staffers being out of work.” We sure wouldn’t. In case you were wondering: NBC is run by greedy douchebags. source

14 Jan 2010 09:48

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Biz: Retail unexpectedly sucked last month; jobs sucked last week

  • -0.3% decline in retail sales in December; a growth of 0.5% was expected during the holidays
  • +11,000 increase in jobess claims last week; it wasn’t supposed to be quite that high source

08 Jan 2010 08:59

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Biz: December’s job outlook not so rosy, but not catastrophic, either

  • -85k number of jobs that were lost in December
  • 10% level of unemployment – it’s staying steady
  • +4k number of jobs ADDED in November (?!?!) source

02 Jan 2010 16:40

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Biz: Happy New Year! Banks are figuring out new ways to screw you

  • $50B the amount of income banks stand to lose due to the Credit Card Act of 2009
  • 43% of bank execs feel that consumer trust has eroded in the last six months; no, really
  • fees the solution banks plan to offset losses – let the nickel & diming commence source

02 Jan 2010 15:57

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Biz: Big-box retail survivors eating the corpses of the deceased

  • cause A bunch of retail spaces have closed during the recession – including 8,000 stores expected in the first half of this year alone.
  • effect Chains still doing well – including Forever 21, Kohl’s and Staples – are taking advantage of cheap rents to launch new concepts. source

31 Dec 2009 11:48

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Biz: Cautious optimism: Jobless numbers slowly continuing to improve

  • 432,000 new jobless claims last week, seasonally adjusted
  • 07/19/08 the last time the number was that low, guys source
 

30 Dec 2009 20:52

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Biz: Who’s GMAC’s new owner? You are, American taxpayer.

  • $3.8
    billion
    the government’s added stake in the struggling GM-tied auto financing company
  • $16.3
    billion
    the government’s total stake in the company; that’s more than Chrysler, guys source

30 Dec 2009 10:55

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Politics: Fear the double-dip: Some analyst says we need more stimulus

  • The only reason that the U.S. economy is doing as well as it is, is because of the government stimulus package. Now, if the government doesn’t introduce another stimulus package, this one will burn off in the first half and in the second half we could easily slip back into recession.
  • Westwood Capital Managing Director Len Blum • Arguing for the need for more stimulus on CNBC this morning. He notes that the government isn’t exactly in a position to be giving out more stimulus money due to the massive amount of lending it’s doing at the moment. Is this guy full of it? Depends on who you ask. Others argue that we might see a soft landing instead of a double dip. We argue that CNBC is full of speculation and it’s kinda hard to trust the speculation from their network. source

29 Dec 2009 11:05

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Biz: Home prices increase, barely, but it’s not worth celebrating

  • 0.4% boost, mostly from gov’t incentives source